While the NBA Playoffs have begun and all attention is on who will be crowned this year’s champions, some teams and players have begun preparations for the offseason. One of those teams are the Chicago Bulls and they have some big decisions to make. Among those decisions will be their future with young forward Lauri Markkanen.

At the trade deadline this year, Chicago traded for Nikola Vucevic, pairing the All-Star center with their All-Star guard in Zach LaVine. Both guys are going to be the focal points of this team moving into next season, along with Coby White in the back-court, but this team is still a long ways away from being a true threat in the Eastern Conference. 

As a result of this trade with the Magic for Vucevic, there is only a 20.2% chance that the Bulls pick ends up inside the Top-4 of this year’s draft for them to keep their first-round draft pick, since it was traded with Top-4 Protection on it. With likely no first-round pick and limited cap space, where does Chicago go from here in the offseason? 

Well, Daniel Theis, Garrett Temple, and Denzel Valentine are all set to be free agents, but their biggest free agent will be Markkanen, who will be a restricted free agent. The Bulls and Markkanen failed to reach an agreement on a deal ahead of the start of the 2020-21 season, but there is still some optimism within this organization that they will be able to bring him back. 

There is still a possibility that Markkanen and the Bulls reach an agreement on an offseason deal, whether or not he agrees to an offer sheet with another team, but he is one of the better young players available on the free agent market this upcoming offseason. 

There are a handful of teams that will show interest in signing Lauri Markkanen this offseason, so let’s highlight three teams who could show a significant amount of interest in signing the young big man away from the Bulls.